Take me out to the Ball Game
by Tattered-Petals
Summary: Derek Morgan decides that Spencer Reid still has to broaden his horizons when it comes to sports, and he doesn't plan to take no for an answer.


"I don't want to go," Spencer whined. He looked at Derek Morgan with wide, sad eyes that reminded Derek of his dog Clooney when Derek denied him table scraps. He even had the shaggy hair that hung in his face. "I already played baseball. Why would I want to go see a game of it?"

Derek had rolled his eyes. He had cornered Reid when the boy had gone to get himself his third cup of coffee. Spencer had always taken an abnormally long amount of time to prepare it, since he had to add in just the right obnoxious amount of sugar. Derek always thought he might as well pour himself a cup of sugar, add some water, and drop in one little bean of coffee. He had bought tickets for a baseball game, and had been determined to get Spencer to go with him. "Yes, but playing it and seeing it are two totally different experiences!" Derek reminded the man, who looked less than impressed. "Besides, the last time went pretty well." He reasoned.

Spencer couldn't help the slight smile that had appeared on his face. The start of the game had been...well...humiliating. But it had ended well, and he even had a picture Penelope had taken of himself and Derek after the game framed in his living room. Derek had proudly thrown an arm around him and flashed a big grin to the camera, he looked like a proud older brother.

"Aha! See!" Derek pointed right at his face, which much to Spencer's regret, still had a reminiscent smile. Derek flashed his signature grin."You had a good time, and now you have a nice little memory of sports! Why not add another to the list?"

"Because you're requesting my presence at an overly crowded ballfield, with burning hot, sweaty seats, burning hot sweaty people, who will probably be drunk, and there will be a slim chance that a baseball will hit me in the face." He paused for a moment. "Or that one of the sweaty drunk people will." Derek rolled his eyes.

"Have you ever even been to a baseball game before?" Derek asked, slightly amused by Spencer's description. ...Although it might not have been totally wrong.

"Football game. With JJ. Lots of yelling. Even when their team won there was yelling." Spencer actually looked confused by the concept. Derek tried to hold back a grin.

"That's not yelling, kid, that's cheering." Derek lost his fight with his grin and also chuckled. Spencer just glared at him and aggressively stirred his coffee. He gave Derek his annoyed kitten glare. Derek supposed at some point he should actually act as though it frightened him. "Besides, football is not baseball. Also, you have no say in this. You owe me one."

Spencer exchanged his annoyed kitten glare for a more perplexed expression. Derek saw him mentally shifting through the archives in his brain. "How on earth do I owe you anything?" He asked after a moment of searching and coming out empty handed.

Derek smiled at him, "I brought you coffee and a donut this morning."

Spencer stared at him in disbelief. "That donut had an agenda?!" He looked thoroughly betrayed, and Derek couldn't help but laugh again. "You just tainted the gesture!"

Derek rolled his eyes. "I didn't taint the gestur-."

"You totally tainted the gesture!" Spencer cut him off with a whine. His coffee cup, and the spoon inside it, were held forgotten in his grip. "You can't bribe me with food, Morgan!"

"Oh come on," Derek had looked at him with a fond exasperation. "It's just one game, Reid. If you hate it that much, I'll let you go home in the middle of it."

Spencer pouted. He had looked like a child, with his hair that hung over his eyes, his bottom lip stuck out, and his eyes sad. "At the football game, people threw peanuts at two people rooting for the other team."

Derek threw his arm around Spencer and jostled him slightly, the coffee lurched within the cup. "I promise, I won't let anyone throw peanuts at you."

Spencer sighed and looked at Derek apprehensively. "You're not letting me get out of this, are you?"

Derek's signature grin came back, bigger and more cheerful than ever. "Nope!" he declared. He gave Spencer a pat on the back, which sent the man lurching forward, and then he walked away.

Spencer pouted and looked down at his sugar-filled cup of coffee. Derek just totally ruined his coffee time.

He had better at least buy him peanuts.

~.~.~.~.~.

He had indeed bought Spencer peanuts, and fried dough, and a hotdog, also this little bat that Spencer was pretty sure was made for little kids. He had brought him a baseball cap before the game, and had placed it over his hair and declared that Spencer was all set. The whole game Derek continuously got him food, and Spencer belatedly realized Derek was, once again, buying his compliance.

But the fried dough had been really good, and Derek just kept buying him more. He even let Spencer rattle on about baseball statistics in the middle of the game, and Spencer felt himself almost enjoying watching Derek jump out of the bleacher seats to clap. He would then grab the back of Spencer's shirt and force him to stand up, as well.

"This is when we clap!" He explained. Spencer would nod his head and clap his hands until apparently the appropriate amount of celebration time had passed.

"You know," Spencer chatted to him while Derek watched the game intently, "the origins of baseball are actually a bit complicated."

"Are they now?" Derek obviously wasn't interested, but Spencer continued on, anyway. He was being held captive at a baseball game, after all.

"Mhm!" Spencer nodded. "A lot of people think it was invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839, but that's incorrect!" He explained. Derek wasn't even pretending to pay attention, but he also wasn't shutting Spencer up, which had encouraged him. "References to games that resemble baseball in the United States go back to the 18th century. It's most direct ancestors seem to be two English games: rounders and cricket! In September of 1845, a group of New York City men founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. Alexander Joy Cartwright, who was a volunteer firefighter and a bank clerk, went on to codify a new set of rules that would form the basis for modern baseball. In 1846 the Knickerbockers played the first official game of baseball against a team of cricket players, which begun the the uniquely American tradition." Spencer looked at Derek expectantly.

Derek turned to look at him, nodded, then looked at Spencer's now empty various plates. "You out of food?"

Spencer narrowed his eyes. "I can't tell if you're feeding me to keep me here or to shut me up."

Derek laughed and threw an arm around Spencer's shoulder. He smiled at the man with fondness. "A little bit of both, kid." He grinned. "A little bit of both."


End file.
